Is Microsoft releasing Windows 12 next year?

Martin Brinkmann
Mar 2, 2023
Updated • Mar 2, 2023
Windows 12 News
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More and more leaks suggest that Microsoft is working on a Windows 11 successor, that it will be named Windows 12, and that it will be released in the second half of 2024.

Note: these leaks should be classified as rumors at this point, as Microsoft has not commented on any of them.

Rumors and leaks about Windows 12

It is early 2023, and rumors and leaks suggest that a Windows 12 release is going to happen in the second half of 2024. Here is a recap of what happened so far in regards to Windows 12.

It all started with last year's report by Windows Central that Microsoft was already working on Windows 12. The site did not name any sources, only that the sources were close to Microsoft. The author claimed that Microsoft planned to release a new version of Windows every three years going forward.

This year, eagle eyed users of VMware vSphere 8 noticed that the application listed Windows 12 (64-bit) as one of the available guest systems.

Now, information on Intel's upcoming Meteor Lake platform was leaked on Twitter.  Revealed by Twitter user leaf_hobby (via Neowin), and later deleted, specs of the upcoming platform included Wi-Fi 6 debut, chipset information and other technical details. Windows 12 was listed as one of the supported operating systems, according to the leaker.

While Microsoft prefers to be tight lipped when it comes to future versions of Windows, it needs to communicate with its partners, hardware manufacturers as well ass select software companies and organizations.

Will Windows 12 be released in 2024?

Neither Microsoft nor Intel have confirmed the leaks or that Windows 12 is in development. Still, 2024 will be an important year for Microsoft.

Windows 10, the dominating Windows version right now, will be retired in 2025. Windows 10 has a market share of over 70% at the time, while Microsoft's newest operating system Windows 11 has not even crossed the 20% mark yet. At its current pace, Windows 11 may cross the 40% mark in late 2024, as it is increasing by roughly 1% each month currently.

This would still give Windows 10 a commanding lead at the end of 2024, and the operating system would still be used by millions of customers when it reaches its retirement age in October 2025.

The release of a new version of Windows, Windows 12 in this case, could persuade more Windows 10 customers and organizations to upgrade their devices or make new purchases.

A 2024 launch would also means that the new operating system would have matured in 2025, as it would likely have received its first feature update by the time Windows 10 runs out of official support.

It is unclear at this point if Windows 12 will have the same minimum system requirements as Windows 11. It seems highly unlikely that Microsoft is going to relax system requirements in Windows 12. The same or even stricter requirements would prevent a good portion of Windows 10 devices from official upgrades to either of the operating systems.

To answer the title question: there is a solid chance that the rumors and leaks are indeed true, and that Microsoft will release Windows 12 next year.

Now You: what would you like to see in Windows 12?

Summary
Is Microsoft releasing Windows 12 next year?
Article Name
Is Microsoft releasing Windows 12 next year?
Description
Leaks suggest that Microsoft is working on the next version of Windows, Windows 12, and that it plans to release it in late 2024.
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Ghacks Technology News
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Comments

  1. hornylamb said on March 14, 2023 at 8:32 pm
    Reply

    like this line by the way mate… :D

    While Microsoft prefers to be tight lipped when it comes to future versions of Windows, it needs to communicate with its partners, hardware manufacturers as well ass select software companies and organizations.

  2. John G. said on March 3, 2023 at 2:53 pm
    Reply

    Everything should be better than W11 and its weird nonsense taskbar (the useless crap ever done in an OS). And also a good startup and a good explorer’s menu, and also a good… Oh come on, stop joking myself, let’s use W10 till 2026 and then MacOS or Ubuntu 26 LTS. Thanks for the article.

    1. TelV said on July 14, 2023 at 12:18 pm
      Reply

      @ John G,

      You won’t say that when you discover that a Microsoft account is mandatory to use Windows 12.

      I agree with you about the W11 taskbar though. The 22H2 update added a search bar to the taskbar which can’t be removed AFAIK. I’m not going to use it because I’ve installed Everything Search, but it annoys me to see it there.

  3. Tim said on March 3, 2023 at 1:40 pm
    Reply

    Windows development in recent years, well maybe 8 years, has purged me almost completely of any interest in this operating system. Telemetry, peculiar features I don’t need, being constant beta tester etc… My opinion doesn’t matter of course, since it is MS heads who know better what I need and when.

  4. JohnIL said on March 2, 2023 at 12:25 pm
    Reply

    Not looking forward to yet another Windows release that is bound to be no more stable than what we have now. I know myself I much prefer stability and long-term support then new and improved.

  5. Someone said on March 2, 2023 at 12:22 pm
    Reply

    I am waiting till the retiremed of w10 in 2025, after I go on 11 without microsoft bothering me, telemetry and ads-subsystem.

    1. SomethingHappened said on March 2, 2023 at 2:28 pm
      Reply

      Windows won’t get any better going forward as long as the current Microsoft executives are in charge, it will only become worse with Bing OS 12. I hope Microsoft has a sane person remaining who will terminate everyone responsible for the disaster of Windows 11.

      1. Jek Porkins said on March 2, 2023 at 7:29 pm
        Reply

        Windows 12 will be worse than 11, just like 11 is worse than 10 (the only good thing about 11 is the visuals), just like 10 was worse than 8, just like 8 was worse than 7.

        Windows 11 made it really hard to set your default programs, at least in Windows 10 you could do it with several clicks.

        How I wish for Windows that has the visual styles of 98, XP, Vista and 7 with all the positive additions of Windows 11 without the telemetry and the useless apps and the restriction for customization.

        XP – 7 was so easy to customize – just patch uxtheme.dll and slap some 3rd party themes in C:/Windows/Resources/Themes and apply them.

        Now you have to change so much:

        – one program to change your start menu
        – one program to change your taskbar
        – one program to change your title bar

        And it still won’t change everything.

      2. Jek Porkins said on March 2, 2023 at 7:30 pm
        Reply

        Forgot to mention now Edge reinstalls itself like some virus malware even if you uninstall it.

      3. TelV said on July 14, 2023 at 12:13 pm
        Reply

        @ Jek Porkins,

        Don’t bother trying to remove Edge and instead install MSEdgeRedirect. Martin wrote an article on the subject over at https://www.ghacks.net/2022/01/03/msedgeredirect-tool-to-redirect-microsoft-edge-links-has-been-updated/

        But the images are outdated now and the current version is 0.7.4.0: https://github.com/rcmaehl/MSEdgeRedirect/releases

      4. owl said on July 15, 2023 at 12:43 am
        Reply

        “Edge Blocker” can also help.
        https://www.sordum.org/9312/edge-blocker-v1-9/
        I have been “disabled Edge from many years ago” with Edge Blocker.

        And “BrokenURL” is my favorite.
        https://brokenevent.com/projects/brokenurl

      5. Someone said on March 3, 2023 at 11:29 am
        Reply

        I agree, but I want a full working system, such as w11, with few third-party changes, and w10 after all, became buggy all this years. I gave up unistalling Edge, now I use it just for fun online games, every week. Edge is also very fast, but I never log in to my mail, or other webpages. I dont trust it at all, of course. Microsoft cant be good enough at least in future, to work on a properly good system, but as far is I see, w11 can change that. That happend after the release of 10; You see, people doesnt liked it, but nowdays became the most popular OS from Ms after xp,7 & 8.

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